A few days ago, Pokemon Go was released in the United States. It quickly became the top app in the Apple store, and it began to quickly bring people together as players (or rather, trainers) wandered the streets of their hometowns, stopping at various Pokestops and Gyms to battle other trainers. The app is based in augmented reality, meaning that in order to play the game you have to explore the world around you. While augmented reality is not a new thing, Pokemon Go arguably brought the feature to light, making the general progression of media even more interesting for someone such as myself to think about.
It is often an argument that media and technology isolate people. There is the photography series that edits out phones to show how they disconnect interpersonal relationships, there are articles or “studies” how technology disintegrates personal relationships and peoples’ abilities to socialize. This argument was made when the first telephones were made and people had ceased to go next-door to talk to their neighbors in person. It was then made when texting existed, and the “intimacy” of the phone-call “ceased” to exist.
The augmented reality of Pokemon Go, however, takes technology and pop culture and integrates it into the real world. It is important to note the distinction between virtual and augmented reality: virtual reality immerses you into the technology, while with augmented reality, the technology and the “real world” mesh in a delicate way that makes technology become a true extension of the self, rather than an aid.
One can discuss the ethics with augmented reality, as it further blurs the line between fiction and reality. That being said, it still forces people to get up and interact with each other, which is potentially what the “anti-technology” people frequently wish would happen. Augmented reality, in that sense, is taking us back to a time where you had to go outside to play. In this sense, “don’t sit inside with your technology, go outside and get some exercise and meet new people,” takes a whole different turn. It means something completely different, and now there is the world where augmented reality (and more specifically, Pokemon Go) is what facilitates that to happen. It is not something that prevents it, which is what technology used to do. It is strange that technology had to progress so much to give the public a chance to experience the “good old days” of wandering outside, playing games, and having fun with people they’ve just met.
